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'Wii U' Doom And Gloom Continues, But For Nintendo Content Is King

The Wii U has been written off as under-powered and not truly “next-gen” but critics fail to take into account the broader Nintendo strategy.

Basically every other day we hear some new awful thing about Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii U.

Recently the developer 4A Games told NowGamer that the “Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU” and that this is why their game Metro: Last Light won’t be released on the system.

Numerous other complaints have also surfaced: the console’s launch-date third party games are not as good or as stable as they are on other systems. Games like Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition don’t run as well, and so forth.

Furthermore, the 2GB of DDR3 memory in the system apparently have a max bandwidth of just 12.8GB/s compared to much higher bandwidth on the Xbox 360 and PS3. (AnandTech tore apart a Wii U so you should head over there for a detailed breakdown of the hardware, though mysteries do remain.)

Passing Judgment

I remain unconvinced by all of these arguments.

First of all, the developers at 4A Games may indeed not want to port their games to the Wii U and may believe the CPU is to blame for this, but the CPU is only one piece of the puzzle here.

Whether it’s as slow as they claim it to be doesn’t take into account the GPU which has not been fully analyzed yet so far as I can tell and which at least appears to be the core of the new system and its most powerful component.

Second, while the memory bandwidth is disappointing, this calculation fails to take into account the eDRAM—on-die memory that is much faster and more efficient than standard RAM. It’s also a very one-dimensional way of thinking about memory. How efficiently the memory hierarchy is structured and how much games utilizes the on-die RAM will be paramount in the Wii U’s success (or failure.)

And finally, judging a console by launch-date third-party ports is simply absurd. Not only are launch titles rarely good examples of a system’s capabilities, ports are a terrible indicator and especially terrible when we’re discussing a brand-new system.

Efficiency and Design over Power

Finally, the fact remains that Nintendo is simply not that interested in producing an expensive, high-power machine. They’re much more interested in a machine that can play HD games and utilizes both power and resources efficiently. Nintendo wants to make a profit from its console sales rather than sell at a loss, a strategy that worked well for the company with the Wii.

Since the GameCube, “Nintendo has concerned itself with how to improve the game computer’s efficiency while constraining power consumption, and this has been consistent in that design concept,” Nintendo Senior Manager of R&D Genyo Takeda says.

“This time we fully embraced the idea of using an MCM [multi-chip module] for our gaming console,” Takeda adds. “An MCM is where the aforementioned Multi-core CPU chip and the GPU chip are built into a single component. The GPU itself also contains quite a large on-chip memory. Due to this MCM, the package costs less and we could speed up data exchange among two LSIs while lowering power consumption. And also the international division of labor in general, would be cost-effective.”

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata adds: “No matter how great the numbers are that you can boast, can you only draw that out under certain conditions, or can you actually draw out its performance consistently when you use it? Insisting on the latter way of thinking has always been at the root of hardware and system development at Nintendo.”

This may be a reflection of a changed business model from the days of the Nintendo 64 which attempted out-spec the competition but failed to attract the kind of sales we’ve seen with the Wii.

Content is King

Nintendo’s strategy going forward appears to be content, content, content. This means we may indeed see higher-powered (and possibly more expensive) systems from Sony and Microsoft, but Nintendo will have the jump on the competition in terms of both new content and a player base.

It will also have the jump on asymmetric gameplay with the combination of the gamepad screen and the TV screen, something that in practice I can already testify is something that can be quite fun.

“The GamePad doesn’t just introduce a new type of game play, it redefines an entire dynamic,” Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America and chief operating officer, said at E3. ”With asymmetric game play, multiple experiences are possible in the same game at the same time.

“While games are the focus of this year’s E3, the Wii U story also includes the enhanced social connections and integrated entertainment experiences created by the GamePad.

“We’re providing a glimpse of that with the introduction of Miiverse and by revealing partnerships with some of the biggest content providers on the planet.”

I won’t argue with some of the complaints, however. The system does feel a little sluggish at times with load screens that are on par with other current systems. I was hoping for a snappier OS with snappier load times. Maybe further system updates can improve this, maybe not.

Most importantly, there was never really any indication from Nintendo that the Wii U would be a high-powered gaming device set to rival the PC.

Nintendo never claimed they would outdistance the current HD systems in any revolutionary way. They’re sticking to a strategy that maintains hardware profitability and focuses on content they believe the Nintendo consumer base will enjoy, while attempting to reel in some new players with the Pro Controller and the increase in third-party content.

I fail to see how this is a poor strategy given the success of the Wii and given the fact that the Wii U does not rely on the same gimmicks that ended up making the Wii a less desirable console for some consumers and developers.

Nintendo has shown in recent years that it has a pretty good handle on what its customer base wants and how to deliver, and while I think skepticism is always important and well-warranted, I’d hesitate to write off the Wii U or its potential too soon.

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